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336 The North Carolina Historical Commission
the greater his guilt, and that the poor ignorant
fellows were all dupes of the designing. But this
is a false assumption in many cases, in my own
particularly. The truth is that every one of those
outrages which have cast oppobrium on the Klan
was committed by a lot of reckless and insubordi-nate
fellows who could be neither counselled nor
controlled ; and who, instead of being the dupes of
the better informed were a pest and a source of
mortification to all right minded members of the
Order. And I regret to add that the most des-perate
and intractable characters among them usu-ally
escaped by turning State's evidence.
In confirmation of the foregoing view of the Ad-ministration
policy I have just seen the following
extract from the Washington Chronicle, "The At-torney
General declines to issue a pardon for S. G.
Brown because he moved in good society, was in
fact a leader, well posted and of good education."
Now there is not a word of truth in this; for B.
is a poor old man, past 60, of small property, and
only common education; in short, merely an aver-age
"small farmer" of upper S. C. and was never
in any way connected with the Klan I am satisfied.
But as he is about the most respectable of the pris-oners
from his State, the government intends to
hold him until he dies, or turns Republican, or until
he will be glad to sneak home and bury his wrongs
in silence and obscurity. I mention his case simply
to show the barrenness of my own prospects. The
same causes will work the same effect to defeat the
efforts of my friends in my own case.
However if I could allow myself to hope, I know
not any more desirable persons to have the conduct
of my affairs than those honorable gentlemen to
whom you have written and I beg you to express to
them the gratification and gratitude I feel for all
that they have done or may attempt. I thought of
writing to Messrs R. and H. to give some expres-sion
of my sentiments and to mention a circum-stance
or so that might facilitate but on reflection

336 The North Carolina Historical Commission
the greater his guilt, and that the poor ignorant
fellows were all dupes of the designing. But this
is a false assumption in many cases, in my own
particularly. The truth is that every one of those
outrages which have cast oppobrium on the Klan
was committed by a lot of reckless and insubordi-nate
fellows who could be neither counselled nor
controlled ; and who, instead of being the dupes of
the better informed were a pest and a source of
mortification to all right minded members of the
Order. And I regret to add that the most des-perate
and intractable characters among them usu-ally
escaped by turning State's evidence.
In confirmation of the foregoing view of the Ad-ministration
policy I have just seen the following
extract from the Washington Chronicle, "The At-torney
General declines to issue a pardon for S. G.
Brown because he moved in good society, was in
fact a leader, well posted and of good education."
Now there is not a word of truth in this; for B.
is a poor old man, past 60, of small property, and
only common education; in short, merely an aver-age
"small farmer" of upper S. C. and was never
in any way connected with the Klan I am satisfied.
But as he is about the most respectable of the pris-oners
from his State, the government intends to
hold him until he dies, or turns Republican, or until
he will be glad to sneak home and bury his wrongs
in silence and obscurity. I mention his case simply
to show the barrenness of my own prospects. The
same causes will work the same effect to defeat the
efforts of my friends in my own case.
However if I could allow myself to hope, I know
not any more desirable persons to have the conduct
of my affairs than those honorable gentlemen to
whom you have written and I beg you to express to
them the gratification and gratitude I feel for all
that they have done or may attempt. I thought of
writing to Messrs R. and H. to give some expres-sion
of my sentiments and to mention a circum-stance
or so that might facilitate but on reflection